Favored by Kate Middleton's Mum, the Dukan Diet Hits the US

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Here comes the bridal diet. The 70% of engaged women who
hope to shed pounds before their weddings days, now have a new royal diet plan
to follow.

Kate Middelton and her mother Carole are rumored to be
adherents of a four-phase high protein, low-carb regimen laid out in the book
The Dukan Diet, which first built an enormous following in France, where it has
sold upward of 3.5 million copies.

According to theDaily Mail, after just four days on the
diet, Carole Middleton claimed to have lost four pounds. The first stage,
called the attack phases, is the most restrictive, with a diet limited to lean
proteins and oat bran. During this stage, the royal mother of the bride is
reported to have relied heavily on prawns and cottage cheese. From there, the
diet expands to the cruise phase, adding vegetables; next comes consolidation
when fruit and two slices of whole wheat bread are incorporated into the
program. The final phase is stabilization, a lifetime of eating what you want six days
a week, with a seventh day of only lean proteins.

Although Buckingham Palace has denied that the bride-to-be
herself has used the diet for pre-wedding weight loss, the royal connection has
been enough to make Dr. Pierre Dukan's diet guide a bestseller in the UK. The
book was released in the US yesterday and is already purported to have a few
Hollywood admirers. Jennifer Lopez and Gisele Buncheden are both rumored to
have used the program to drop baby weight.

However, some nutritionists and doctors are skeptical of the
diet's benefits. "This is just another one of those diets invented by a
charismatic individual who makes a lot of promises and has loads of
testimonials but is not based on any scientific data whatsoever," Frank Sacks,
professor in the Department of Nutrition at Harvard
University's School of Public Health and chairman of the American
Heart Association Nutrition Committee, told the New York Times.

"Even if you can survive it for the first few days, it's
hard to stick with it. It's hard on your kidneys. And it's expensive,"
registered dietician and spokesperson for the British Dietetic Association, Sian
Porter, told the Times.

And there is also risk of another side effect, one that may
be a deal breaker, particularly for brides-to-be. In addition to constipation and
fatigue, the Dukan Diet can also cause bad breath.